Currently, digital textbooks are rapidly evolving toward intelligence, personalization, and dynamic adaptability. How to optimize the configuration of policy tools to overcome the current development dilemmas of digital textbooks has become an urgent issue to be addressed. Therefore, from the perspective of policy tools, this paper systematically coded 32 digital textbook policy texts issued by the Ministry of Education from 2001 to 2024, quantitatively analyzed the distribution characteristics of policy tools, content compilation stages, and time nodes, and constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework of “tool-content-time” for China's digital textbook policy. Relying on this framework, through analyses from three dimensions of tools, content, and time as well as their cross-analysis, the paper revealed the evolutionary logic of China's digital textbook policy: policy tools evolved from being dominated by command tools to a diversified configuration; the focus of content compilation extended from top-level design to all-process refined governance; and the policy evolution exhibited a nonlinear feature. The policy tools used in the content compilation stage of China's digital textbook policy were highly concentrated in the overall design and the review and revision stages, with significant differences in distribution across different periods, and the focal points of content compilation at different stages showed a dynamic evolution feature. On this basis, the paper analyzed the bottlenecks and constraints faced by China's digital textbook policy innovation and introduced the Service Golden Triangle Model to propose innovative pathways from three dimensions: strategic orientation, system support, and personnel collaboration. This research of the paper not only provided a systematic analytical tool for the study of digital textbook policy but also offered empirical evidence for policy optimization and institutional improvement, contributing to the promote the standardization and intelligent development of digital textbooks.